What I was, What I Am, What I shall be
by Nocturne no Kitsune
Summary: Once upon a time, Danny visits Clockwork in his tower and asks the master of time a question that has long troubled the young halfa. The answer is not what he expected, but is it what he wanted to hear or not?


******_What I was, What I Am, What I shall be_**

**A Danny Phantom Oneshot by Nocturne no Kitsune and Co**

**Summery:**

**Once upon a time, Danny visits Clockwork in his tower and asks the master of time a question that has long troubled the young halfa. The answer is not what he expected, but is it what he wanted to hear or not?**

It was quiet in the small room that looked out into the Ghost Zone through a single large window, so quiet that the term "hear a pin drop" did not even come close. Not even the never-ending ticking of the countless clocks and other time-keeping relics invaded this single room of the tower, and Clockwork said that was how he liked it.

"Danny," the elder ghost had told him as he led him up the tower and into the lonely room. "This is where I escape to. The one place in my entire realm where even I am free of the constant reminder of my duty. No one else, not even those hypocritical Observants, know of this place. Here, I am free to simply sit and think, and even pretend that I do not always know what will happen, or what might happen, or what has happened. This is where I can watch time pass me by just like it does everyone else, and it is here that I always come to when your same question comes to mind. Perhaps, just like it does for me, it can help you understand in the way I can not."

Then the ever-changing ghost had directed him into this one chair, the only one in the room, and had taken his leave to return to his duties of watching over the flow of time itself. In a sense, Danny was happy that he had left him alone here, in such a peaceful place. He needed to think, and think hard. He needed to try and understand what Clockwork had said, no matter how much it didn't make sense. If Clockwork had stayed, then he most likely would have kept asking the same question over and over again, and kept getting the same answer without really trying to figure it out like he was supposed to.

So now he sat here, and stared out into the Ghost Zone like Clockwork probably had countless times in his existence and thought; but no matter how much he tried to focus on the answer Clockwork had given him his mind kept wandering to memories of his past battles, his victories and defeats, and even the everyday details of his extremely non-ordinary life. None of it made sense, none of it matched up to the answer he had gotten. Was Clockwork wrong? Or was he just looking at this the wrong way? He _needed_ to know the answer, so he had come and asked the one person in all existence that _would_ know the answer.

But the answer he had gotten had just made more questions, and those questions had made even more. Clockwork had given him what he wanted, so why did it feel like something was wrong? When this had first started, this entire new life of his, it had been so confusing, he had been so lost and scared. But what was it before he had changed? What was his life before the ghost?

He remembered it clearly, yet it seemed like a strange dream. The memories from before seemed to almost blur together, it was as if one day would always keep repeating itself and never change. He would wake up, go to school, meet up with Sam and Tucker and they would help each other get through the day. But that is where it started to blur, and it was the next day in his mind, and that day was the exact same as the last. Even the beatings and abuse from Dash or the latest social scandal did nothing to break the monotony that marched through his head. It was like there was a movie in his mind, and someone kept pushing the rewind button before it had a chance to finish.

But then the day had come when it all changed, and _he_ had changed. That was the day that he died, or at least half-died. But then again, did he really just half-die? Did more of him die then they knew of, or did less? Was he really a human after all, or just a ghost who was better at pretending then the others? He had seen and fought other ghosts that could pretend to be human as well, and he had never been able to tell the difference. Spectra herself was just a small sample really, when compared to the others. When Spectra transformed and took on a human appearance, it was like she really was human.

Her skin was warm and alive, and if you looked closely enough you could even see the skin move as blood pumped in the veins beneath the skin. She seemed so _human,_ so _alive; _you could never tell she was really an emotion-sucking ectoplasmic vampire. That was more then he could say for himself to tell the truth. His skin had gotten so pale after the accident, and his temperature had plummeted. When he held his fingers to his neck to feel for a pulse, he had to fight back panic for each minute that went by that it was not there before he felt it. He felt so lost sometimes, so stuck in between it all. Was he human and ghost? Or was he ghost and human? Or was he something else?

Afterwards, once the accident had passed and he had started to explore his new powers, it had felt so _wrong_. It felt like he was someone else, and not Danny Fenton. But he was himself wasn't he? He was Danny Fenton, just different. So why did it feel wrong?

After that had come his first fight, the two ecto-pusses coming through the portal and attacking Sam and Tucker while his father had rambled on and on about ghosts. What had happened next had felt so _right_, so _natural_. His first real transformation into his alter-self had been so smooth; it was like sliding into a tub of water till it covered his head. Then it had been easy, almost like he had been doing it for his entire life. Freeing Sam and Tucker, and just letting his fists fly, feeling them sink into the soft green ectoplasmic skin, feeling everything shift and give under his strength. It had been a release, like all his woe was leaving him with each strike as he pummeled the two ghostly cephalopods and tossed them back into the swirling green depths of the portal.

After that it had been an endless series of battles, as he met and fought a countless array of ghosts. But it had also been a set of discoveries, as he began to gain newer and more powerful ghostly abilities. He had also discovered something new was forming between him and his two friends, and he started to see Sam and Tucker in a new light. Once they were just friends, sticking together and surviving school and the social abuse that came with being the "Losers". But now…

But now they were more then that. Tucker was like a brother, and Sam was, well, it was difficult to really place her. But both of them, together, kept him sane. They had stood by him and continued to do so ever since the accident, they helped him try to understand what he was. And even if they did not have ghost powers themselves, they were just as good as he was at catching ghosts. He could never even catch half of the ones he did without their help, and no matter how powerful he got he would always need their help.

He had also noticed something new in himself - once he was just a quiet and withdrawn teen, but with the accident that had changed. He found himself more confidant, more sure of himself. There was also the "witty banter" phase of combat that was commonplace in his ghost hunting and leaked its way into his normal life; he was still trying to figure out where that had come from exactly. Not that he minded it, if anything it helped that he was able to make even his more serious fights a bit less intensive. Both Sam and Tucker agreed with him, something about making it easier to handle stress when you were making fun of someone. In all honestly the two of them had sounded like his older sister Jazz right then and there, but he just ignored that little fact.

But if there was one thing he could never make fun at, one thing that always had his attention, was his future. Unlike other people that could only ever guess at what might be, he had seen it. Both Sam and Tucker had seen it as well, and it had not sat well with them. Then again, the fact that both of them were dead and gone, consumed in a blazing explosion of secret sauce along with his family and Mr. Lancer would not really sit well with anyone involved. He had never really felt all that comfortable going to the Nasty Burger ever since, but it was their favorite hangout.

But it was what had happened after that, after their deaths, which scared him more then anything. The endless wastelands that had been Amity Park and the surrounding areas, the broken mounds that had once been proud buildings, and lastly, the thought that underneath it all was the countless bones of hundreds if not thousands of people that had been killed. All by one person, and the last one they had ever thought possible of it.

The one to do it all, destroy and kill and torment, had been _him_. Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, Dark Phantom. Or was it Dan Phantom? He had really not cared about his future self's name; all he had seen is what he had done. What _he_ would do. He had always been thankful, after he had sealed the future version of himself away, that Clockwork and stepped in to do the rest. The lack of strength, the sensation of falling, and the sight of everything that ever mattered to him going up in flame and death had almost driven him over the edge right then and there. For one small moment, he had failed. They were gone, and Dark Phantom's words rang in his head.

But then, it had stopped. Everything stood still, as time itself came to a grinding halt. Clockwork was suddenly by his side, and his family and friends (and one teacher) floated unharmed under the time ghost's power.

It had changed. They were alive.

The future he had seen was not going to come about, and he still had his loved ones with him. After that, Clockwork had his eternal respect and admiration. He had given Danny a second chance, a chance to change the future to something else. Something better.

And as our favorite halfa sat in the lonely room in Clockwork's tower, he came to understand the answer to the question he asked. He took one last look out at the swirling depths of the Ghost Zone outside the single window that spanned the wall, and stood up and walked to the door. He was just about to open it when it opened for him, and revealed Clockwork with a smile on his face as he floated in his adult form.

Danny looked up at his friend, a smile on his own face. "That's what you meant, right?"

Clockwork looked down at Danny, his smile small but knowing. "Yes. Just like this room has helped me understand that same question and others like it time and time again, I knew that it would do the same for you. Now I believe you are running out of time to get back home before someone starts to wonder, you should really get going."

Danny nodded, and together they walked down from the lonely room in the tower. Without a word more Clockwork showed Danny to the door, but before Danny left he stopped him with a hand on top of the younger ghost's shoulder. "Daniel, if you ever find yourself with questions, remember. Both myself and my home are open to you, and I am always willing to help you with what I can."

Danny stopped for a moment, and a strange expression passed on his face before it turned to slight smile. "Thanks Clockwork, for everything." Without a word more from either, Danny took flight into the Ghost Zone and left his friend and his lair behind. He had to get home, before Jazz or his parents freaked. But then again, maybe it would it was worth it just to take it a bit slow. After all, sometimes you had to savor life, both the good and the bad parts.

**A/N:****Thanks for reading this small venture into the Danny Phantom fandom, and I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. R/R!!**


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